Individual pieces such as automotive door panels are conventionally shipped in a frame having slots for receiving multiple individual pieces and bars for locking the pieces in place. These bars, called dunnage bars in the art, are removably mounted at each end in associated locking devices, which are themselves adjustably positioned on the frame for accommodating pieces of differing geometries. In a dunnage bar locking arrangement heretofore marketed by applicant, the lock includes a saddle having a base and parallel sidewalls spaced from each other by a distance to receive and laterally capture an end of the dunnage bar. A latch is mounted on an endwall of the saddle at a position spaced from the saddle base, and is rotatable on the endwall about an axis parallel to the saddle base between a lower position at which the latch captures the dunnage bar end against the saddle base between the sidewalls, and an upper position that permits removal of the dunnage bar end. A coil spring urges the latch against the saddle endwall and cooperates with a detent integral with a endwall for preventing rotation of the latch from the lower position to the upper position unless the latch is manually biased against the spring force. A cam surface on the detent automatically moves the latch against the spring force as the latch is manually pivoted from the upper to the lower bar-locking position.
Although applicant's prior-art lock arrangement described above has enjoyed substantial commercial acceptance and success, improvements remain desirable. For example, the prior-art lock requires manipulation of the latch by hand at both ends of the bar both to lock and unlock the bar ends, making use of the bar and lock arrangement more time-consuming, cumbersome and expensive than desired. It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide an improved bar locking arrangement for dunnage applications and the like in which the bar may be inserted into the lock without requiring operator manipulation of the locking device itself. Another object of the present invention is to provide a bar lock arrangement of the described character in which the bar may be removed from the locks by manipulating the lock at one bar end by hand, and then removing the bar without manipulating the lock at the opposing end. A further object of the invention is to provide a bar lock arrangement of the described character that is less expensive to manufacture than are similar arrangements in the prior art, including applicant's prior-art lock arrangement. Yet another object of the invention is to provide a locking arrangement that may be employed in conjunction with the same bars as those employed with the prior-art lock arrangement, thereby reducing the cost of changeover from applicant's existing lock arrangement to that of the present invention.